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I
29
1
Pre-reading
Match the songs (1 to 8) to the groups, singers or artists (a-h).
1. Back for Good
2. Mercy
3. No Bravery
4. I Wanna Hold your Hand
5. Boom Boom Pow
6. Back in Black
7. Pour some Sugar on Me
8. Tik Tok
2
Reading I
For many years, The Beatles music wasnt on iTunes. Why do
you think this was the case? Discuss your ideas with a partner.
Then, read the article to compare your ideas.
3
Reading II
Read the article again and answer these questions.
1. What do Apple Corps and Apple both have?
2. When did their legal fght come to an end?
3. How did Steve Jobs and Paul McCartney feel
about it?
4. How well have the digital versions of The
Beatles songs been selling?
5. Are digital music sales in the UK greater than
the sale of CDs?
6. What do some groups dislike about iTunes?
4
Language focus
Expressions with the
verb to come
Look at this extract from the article on this page, ...the legal
fght came to an end in 2007,... The writer has used
an expression with the verb to come(to come to an end).
Complete the sentences with the correct prepositions.
1. They came with a really good idea.
2. The door handle came in my hand.
3. She lost consciousness, but came
a few seconds later.
4. The attacker came us with a knife.
5
Discussion
1. How do you listen to music? With a CD
player? On the internet? Etc.
2. What are the pros and cons of listening to
music on an MP3 player?
3. Where do you get your music from?
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Musical Trends
READING II
track
Englishman
14
How do you listen to music?
D
igital downloads
are the big
thing in music.
And the iTunes Music
Store has just about
every band, singer and
group imaginable,
including Take That,
Dufy, James Blunt,
Ke$ha and The Black
Eyed Peas. So, why did
it take so long for the
worlds number-one
band (The Beatles) to
appear on the worlds
number-one music download site (iTunes)?
It was all down to a copyright issue. Both the Beatles
company (Apple Corps) and the iTunes company (Apple)
have the same apple trademark, and both claimed the
rights to it. After a series of court cases, the legal fght came to an end in 2007,
but it took a further three years for the bands music to be made available
online. The exact reason for this added delay are not clear, but there are
rumours that it had something to do with a problem with record company
EMI, who owned the copyright to a portion of The Beatles music.
Anyway, theyre all friends now. We love The Beatles and are honoured and
thrilled to welcome them to iTunes, said Apple boss Steve Jobs. Former
Beatle Paul McCartney was equally pleased. Its fantastic to see the songs
we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as
they did the frst time around. And drummer Ringo
Starr had this to say, Im particularly glad that Im
no longer asked when The Beatles are coming to
iTunes.
Unfortunately, sales havent been as good as
expected. Many thought The Beatles would storm
the charts the moment they launched their back
catalogue for digital download, but they didnt
even make it to the top 10. The fact is, the majority
of music sales are still in the classic CD format (only
30% of sales in the UK were digital in 2010). However,
experts believe that within 10 years, all music will be
sold online. And with the rise of the iPhone (and now
the iPad) CD sales are set to fall even more.
Meanwhile, there are still a few musicians and
groups who refuse to go on the iTunes site. They
include AC/DC, Kid Rock, Garth Brooks, Bob Seger,
Def Leppard and Tool. Many dont like the way
that iTunes sells individual tracks rather than
encouraging people to buy entire albums. AC/
DC front man Brian Johnson said, Maybe Im just
being old-fashioned, but this iTunes... it's going
to kill music if theyre not careful. But with digital
downloads slowly overtaking CD sales, how much
longer can they hold out?
GLOSSARY
copyright n
if you have the copyrightto a book /
piece of music, etc. you have the legal
rights to it and people must ask your
permission to copy it
an issue n
a problem
a trademark n
the name or logo of a company
a delay n
if there is a delay, something takes
longer than expected / planned
to have something to do with exp
if A has something to do withB, A
and B are related / connected
thrilled adj
very happy and excited
on vinyl n
the old format for listening to music
on records (round, black discs)
glad adj
pleased; happy
to storm the charts exp
if a group or musician storms the
charts, they are very popular and sell
many records
a back catalogue n
all the music a musician / group have
produced in the past
set to fall exp
if sales are set to fall, they will
probably decrease
to refuse vb
to say that you wont do something
a track n
a song
a front man n
the singer in a band
to hold out exp
if you hold out, you dont do
something until you absolutely need to
Duffy a
The Beatles b
Take That c
AC/DC d
Black Eyed Peas e
James
Blunt
f
Ke$ha g
Def Leppard h
Its the
Beatles!